I cannot believe this - we came so close to having an entire season without one Referee Rant, but it was all spoiled! I should have known that would be an impossible occurrence.To qualify it though, I have watched the least football this season I probably ever have before, I’ve really only watched games I really cared about this time, so I haven’t seen as many games this year and therefore haven’t been exposed to as much officiating I might take issue with, but even so it was remarkable that there wasn’t a single incident that caught my attention. Until now. >_>

NFC Championship game, Packers shock everyone by absolutely dominating the game across all aspects for the majority of the start. Seahawks have zero life in them, it’s shaping up to be a blowout.Green Bay puts an exclamation mark on their defensive performance by getting a huge sack, backing Seattle way up. One of their players didn’t like that, so he came in late and plowed the Packer sacker in the back. Referee correctly flags the play, but then incorrectly calls the penalty. He says it was unnecessary roughness. That forces Green Bay to decline the flag in order to keep the sack, and although that backs the Seahawks way up they manage to convert it eventually and continue the drive which still stalls short of the end zone, but their field goal is a fake and they get a touchdown off it which finally jolted life into the team, giving them their first points and first confidence of the day.When this series of events went down, I literally called the game right there. The person watching it with me can verify; I stood up and said aloud “That’s the game.” I knew that was the spark Seattle needed, and now things would turn around. My prediction came true to the letter, from that moment on Seattle played better on both offense and defense. They slowly but surely reeled the game within reach, went to overtime, and eventually won.

None of this should have taken place. That penalty should have been the nail in the coffin of Seattle’s defeat - not the eventual impetus of their unlikely comeback victory.The cheap shot was a reaction to the sack. He wasn’t diving in trying to prevent it, he saw it happen and became frustrated, charging in after the fact! It wasn’t unnecessary roughness on the play as the official said it was; that was a late hit which is after the play, which means the penalty yards get added on to the initial loss on the play! Seattle should have been backed up fifteen more after the massive sack, which would have put them in a hole they never could have converted. That would have been a definitive demoralizer at that point in the game, and the Packers would have continued to walk all over them. That was indisputably the turning point in the game.

That one moment isn’t what lost the Packers the game, necessarily, but it is definitely what won Seattle the game. It’s not to dismiss their amazing comeback, all credit for that goes to who deserve it; but this momentum swing was what enabled them to begin that comeback. It changed the tone of the game in a major way, thereby having a major effect on how the rest played out.

You don't think the withdrawn pass interference call during the Detroit-Dallas game was worth a rant?

From what I hear it likely was; I probably would have posted about it if I had seen that game, but I didn’t.

Edit:

So I looked that play up, and shockingly no, I don’t have a rant for that. I’m fine with the noncall.

I can definitely see why it’s controversial, there can be solid points made on both sides, but was it definitely the wrong decision? No; it legitimately could have gone either way.If it had been called interference I would have been fine with that, but it was validly dismissed and I’m fine with that too. It was up to the discretion of the officials. As they explained to Stafford, you can face guard as long as you don’t make contact, and the replays seem to show this is what happened. The only contact I saw was the reciever grabbing the defender.It’s an odd play for sure, thus Stafford’s remarks of ‘never seeing that happen’, but it’s not an instance of an unthinkable ‘how could they reverse that?!’ moment. The referees have the ability to pick up the flag after discussion.

If the defender had simply turned his head to find the ball there would be no discussion about this; it wouldn’t have been called and people would have understood. I think the only reason there is controversy is because people aren’t used to seeing the defender block without turning, and thus automatically think it has to be a penalty because although there are legal ways to do it it is extremely rare to see. Probably 99% of the time the defender doesn’t turn it is interference, so like I said it’s definitely understandable why it caused an uproar. It’s too bad though, because with everyone insisting it should have been a penalty it prevents us from considering it the rare 1% play of stellar defense and seeing it as a great football moment instead of a controversial one.

I almost wish I did take issue with that though, it would make it less upsetting that we’re still just a single play away from a perfect season.

Yeah, of course you think it was a penalty. And you’re not wrong to, fan bias aside, as I said it legitimately could have gone either way, and neither call would have been wrong or right. This is about as pure a judgment call as you can have on interference. Big picture they probably should have let it stand, just because the flag was originally thrown, but they were within their authority to pick it up, and they used valid reasoning in doing so.

What bothers me more than the actual call or noncall though was when Dez Bryant charged the official to complain about the initial interference call. That probably should have been a penalty, making whether or not they enforced the one on the play irrelevant. I get why they let that go too though, that kind of incident is also a judgment call. They probably figured because it was in the heat of the moment and all that they’d just let it go.

So it turns out there is one more sort of Rant to end the season with. I’m torn on this one, because while it was definitely a blown call, it’s not of the usual nature of a Referee Rant because it wasn’t that they got it blatantly wrong, I understand why it happened, and also because it can’t definitively be linked to the way the game wound up, as a deciding factor. It could have been though, we’ll never know. So I have to mention it, but just to point it out, not to lambaste the officials. (And therefore we still remain but one incident away from a perfect season, and I sigh for what could have been.)

It’s pretty straightforward, they pointed it out right in the commentary. A Patriot intentionally tripped a Seattle receiver on one of their later drives, should have been interference, wasn’t called. The reason I’m not ranting about this is because I understand why they didn’t notice it. It was an unusual thing, the defender had tripped himself and while on the ground reached out to trip up the receiver. You wouldn’t normally be in a position to see that on the field, because you’re watching the guy that’s still standing, you don’t see the grab down on the ground. I didn’t see it in real time myself, only on the replay. So definitely a missed call, but not because of incompetence, just a result of human limitations. It’s disappointing though, because Seattle’s drives at that point in the game were all vital, each one that stalled was what resulted in the game remaining as close as it did and enabling the eventual crazy finish. You can’t say this definitely resulted in the Seahawks being unable to hold on, but it certainly didn’t help them.

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